As if you really needed to be given more reasons than you already know, MEN’S HEALTH put out this handy little LIST OF REMINDERS why it’s STILL the best idea you ever had.
Like this gruesome gem:
“Twenty pounds of warm human fat can refill every bottle in an empty case of beer, with enough left over to fill your blender.”
I am not really an advocate of any dogmatic style of eating. I tend to look for what I know to be healthy and keep the nasty stuff (meaning sugary/oily snacks) down to a minimum. But The Mediterranean Diet does have a lot going for it. It’s high in fiber, vitamins and minerals and good fats, and low in animal products. Take a look at THIS ARTICLE ON CNN
If you’re looking for something new that is NOT a crash diet, but a whole new way of looking at eating, this might be for you.
If you’re becoming more conscious of what you put in your body, always remember that the simplest list of ingredients is always going to be better for you. A short list AND a list of words you recognize as actual food.
Here’s a great example. Lets look at a bag of Doritos:
Ingredients: Whole corn, corn oil, salt, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), buttermilk solids, whey protein concentrate, romano cheese from cow’s milk (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes), tomato powder, monosodium glutamate, onion powder, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, whey, wheat flour, garlic powder, artificial colors (including yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6, red 40, red 40 lake), dextrose, sugar, disodium phosphate, lactic acid, natural and artificial flavor, spice, citric acid, parmesan cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.
I’ve highlighted in red the things that most people won’t recognize. Do you know what that stuff is? I do, and most of it is garbage that your body does not need.
And here’s a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips:
Potatoes, sunflower oil, salt
Obviously, chips aren’t the greatest thing to be eating anyway, but I am realistic. I know my clients like chips from time to time, and I like them too. Next time you want something crunchy though, reach for Lay’s, or better yet, baked crackers.
In the case of food “bad guys” we take a good idea too far in this country. We were terrified of fat when I was a kid, and then later, when I was in college, nobody was eating carbs. …sigh. I’ve already covered that, so let’s move on.
It’s amazing to me that after Denmark and Canada banned foods containing hydrogenated oils, and health researchers all over the world came to the same conclusion about them, that they have only kind of became a “bad guy” in America. People are talking about them, but nobody really seems to understand. We all cried wolf over fats and carbs, so now trans fats seem like just another silly thing to blow over. Trust me, people, this is NOT another silly fad. This one is a REAL bad guy.
Trans fats are the real monsters in our food, and many of us are shoveling them down our throats with reckless abandon. If you’re eating chips, or crackers, or cookies, or snack cakes, then chances are you are eating them. WIKIPEDIA had this to say about it:
“Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health. Eating trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease. For these reasons, health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are generally considered to be more of a health risk than those occurring naturally.”
To close, I will just leave you with this description of precisely what hydrogenated means. Keep in mind, if you’re eating like most Americans, you put LOTS of this in your body every day.
“First they take vegetable oil, soy, corn or cottonseed, of a cheap quality. The oil may be already rancid from the extraction process. Then they mix it with tiny metal particles, usually nickel oxide, a toxic substance, and then they subject the mixture to hydrogen in a high pressure high temperature reactor. Next, in order to remove the unappetizing odor of the mixture and give it a better consistancy, soap-like emulsifiers and starch are squeezed in, and the oil is, yet again, subjected to high temperatures like steam cleaning. The resulting mixture is an unattractive grey color. In order to make the hydrogenated solid oil mixture look like butter, the original gray is removed by adding bleach and coal tar dyes. Finally, strong flavors are mixed in to make it taste like butter. And this mixture is compressed into tubs or blocks which the consumer buys as margarine.”
Some of you have been probably been hearing a new food buzz word the last couple years, and wondered what it was all about.
I am referring to the trend towards “gluten free” everything.
Gluten is a protein that occurs in grasses, and most notably in wheat. It comprises about 80% of the protein in wheat, to be precise. To about 99.9% of Americans this protein is not only harmless, but quite nutritious. In a very small minority it can create painful and dangerous side effects, but as I said that is only in a small percentage of us. It’s estimated to be less than 1% of us. To read more about the science of gluten and this reaction, CLICK HERE.
You may or may not have noticed it, because if you’re like most people, you many not really read the labels of what you eat very closely, but there has been a growing list of products that are bragging about being gluten free in recent years. I had a jar of natural peanut butter the other day that was gluten free. I had to laugh out loud because there was never any reason for a person to suspect a jar of peanut butter contained gluten in the first place.
But, that brings me to my point. Most of us wouldn’t worry if there was gluten in our peanut butter, and most of us don’t need to worry about gluten at all, and in fact eat it all the time. It’s in wheat bread, it makes bagels chewier, and gives pizza crust it’s texture. The only people who need to concern themselves with gluten should be well-informed by their doctor about what foods are dangerous for them, and what ingredients to look for, and they would know better than to suspect peanut butter. When the list of ingredients is “peanuts and salt” it’s pretty obvious that it’s safe for anyone who doesn’t have a peanut allergy.
The reason it’s on that label is because of this growing fear of gluten. It’s becoming the new “bad guy” in food. We’ve had many over the years, this one is only the newest. There was a while where fat was our enemy, and then it was sodium for a while, and who can forget the most idiotic one; the Atkins attack on carbs. There was a kernel of truth in those attacks of the past. Yes, in large amounts, those things are bad for you. BUT in the right amounts those things are good for you. Fat is necessary for healthy skin and hair and joint function, among other things. Too little sodium intake can make you just as sick as too much. And carbs… besides the fact that they are you body’s primary fuel source, they are your brain’s ONLY fuel source… do I even need to address this one again?
Anyway, that’s a whole different discussion. The point is, gluten is not your enemy… unless you have Celiac disease, then it is, but you probably already know that. If not, then you will know soon enough, but more than likely you are one of the overwhelming majority of us who simply don’t need to care.
I know, this job isn’t for everybody. What I mean to say is, not everybody would enjoy this job. Here’s a couple of tips for those of you who think this might be the career for you.
The first step is getting certified. It is not a legal requirement, but if you are not certified and a gym owner or a potential client is choosing between you and somebody else who is certified, chances are you won’t get that job. Also, just because you’re a dedicated gym rat doesn’t mean you know all the ins and outs of how to work this job. There are other aspects you might not have considered, and the education a certification provides can fill in the blanks for you.
The three most widely recognized training certification companies are:
THE AMERICAN COUNCIL OF EXERCISE
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SPORTS MEDICINE
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SPORTS MEDICINE
The American Council of Exercise, or ACE, is usually where most people get started. It’s just as widely known as the other two, but the initial cost is lower. As a result of the lower cost it can have a lower prestige factor, but ACE provides a solid foundation to your personal training future.
Some people carry two of them, some carry all three. At that point, the upkeep can get a little expensive. To maintain a certification you must take Continuing Education Credits, pay a renewal fee and also renew your CPR certification every two years. Some classes can satisfy two or more of these companies requirements, but many don’t. Taking a number of classes to satisfy all three would be taxing on your schedule as well as your wallet.
Once you’re certified, I recommend most people start in an established gym first. I started my first year at Gold’s Gym. Your pay will not be as high as you might like, but working with other trainers will provide you with a wealth of networking opportunities, and also a chance to learn vicariously from their experiences. Ask lots of questions.
After a couple other gym jobs, I ended up founding Fit Your LIfe Now, and I work exclusively for myself. I wake up every morning knowing that I answer to only myself, AND even better: I’m helping to change the world, one person at a time. That’s really what this is all about: changing people’s lives for the better. Sound fun?
Feel free to comment or email any questions. I’m happy to help.
I have been telling my clients for years that just 15 minutes of interval training is worth significantly more to your health than an hour of a constant, moderate pace, but now here’s an article and a number to back it up.
3 times! That’s right you will burn triple the calories with intervals than you will with a constant pace during your cardio.
You can read more HERE
Obviously, both methods have their uses. An hour of constant moderate pace is obviously going to go a long way towards improving the endurance of your heart and lungs, and especially your legs. But if we’re talking strictly about efficient use of time for calorie burning, intervals are the way to go.
In my own workouts, I try to do both, and alternate between the two. Every other time I focus on endurance, and every other time I do high intensity intervals.
A 2005 Mayo Clinic research study shows that even tiny amounts of activity (tapping your foot, walking your dog, standing up to stretch at work, getting up off the couch to change the channel, and more) can make vast differences in your daily calorie burning.
Specifically the research showed that this behavior is one of the many variables that is almost uniformly different from obese people to lean people. They found that generally people prone to moving more often than not were lean, while people who were not prone to these habits were generally obese. All these small movements totalled up to large calorie deficits for the lean people that the obese people miss out on.
Up to 350 calories PER DAY!!! That can add up to around 30 pounds of extra weight PER YEAR lost or gained, depending on which end of the fidgeting spectrum you fall under.
They also found that people formed their patterns of which way they would go on the spectrum at very early ages. Don’t dispair though, that doesn’t mean you’re locked in to the sedentary habits you formed as a child.
James A Levine, who led the research study, had this to say:
“Some may say this is a story of doom and gloom — that people with obesity have no choice. It’s all over. I would argue exactly the opposite, there’s a massive beacon of hope here. But it’s going to take a massive, top-down approach to change the environment in which we live to get us up and be lean again.”
And don’t miss the silver lining here too, pointed out by William Deitz of the Centers For Disease Control:
“Figuring out ways to increase physical activity — not necessarily getting people jogging every day but just building physical activity into a person’s day — are reasonable strategies that have the promise to combat this epidemic of obesity,”
What he’s saying is that the study shows that you don’t even necessarily need to “work out” so much as just MOVE more in your day-to-day life. Put simply those bad habits you may have of loafing around have been largely UNconcious all these years. Now that I’ve brought your attention to it; you CAN make a change.
Get up and move!
Take THIS LINK to an amazing fitness website. The Cross Fit program is designed for practical strength and power building, and recruits the whole body together to maximize fat-burning, as well as muscle gains.
Police departments, Fire departments, military special ops, and martial artists all over the world subscribe to this school of fitness philosophy. Generally speaking, the people in the groups I just listed tend to be in great physical shape. If it works for them, it can work for you too.
Don’t be intimidated. This program works for everyone. Even the injured or undertrained. You may have to modify it and/or start small, but it’s worth doing. As a trainer I build routines for my clients based on similar principles. Contact me, and I can show you how to apply these ideas safely and effectively.
If you’re like most people I see in the gym, you may be doing only half a workout while you’re there.
I hate to make gender-based generalizations, but I often see many men hit lots of weights/resistance machines and then take off without putting in one second of cardio time…
And ladies, I see many of you spend an hour or more on an elyptical/treadmill/stair-mill and leave without so much as looking at a dumbbell.
If you’re only doing one or the other, you’re not maximizing your calorie burn. Guys, many of you may be finding that your chest and arms are starting to pop out of your shirts, but that belly just isn’t going anywhere. And ladies you won’t be gaining any sexy toning in your arms at all, and you might find that your belly isn’t going anywhere either, and unlike most of the men you’ve also got the hips and thighs to contend with.
If weight-loss and/or toning specifically are among your goals, we need both schools of gym-thought to come together. A high-intensity blending of strength and cardio, called circuit training is just what the doctor ordered. Try this little gem of a quickie:
2-5 minute light/moderate pace on TREADMILL to warm-up
TREADMILL 30 seconds of a good, all-out running pace. RUN! It’s only 30 seconds.
Hop off the treadmill and immediately do Push-ups x 10
Repeat 3x, NO rest in between.
Rest 2 minutes.
Repeat that whole sequence 2x
I guarantee you that even the big guys that bench-press 250 lbs and ladies who jog for an hour on the treadmill will be gassed by this routine. This is just one mini-circuit, one small taste of the kinds of workouts I throw at my clients everyday.